Five Things Meme
Johnny Dollars dropped a meme on me and it's a good one.
"You’ve just learned that tomorrow you will die at sunrise. Tell me the five things you regret and the five things you don’t."
Well, I can't go ten on each subject as the esteemed Mr. Carlucci, so let me try five and five, plus one for extra credit:
Five Things I Regret-
1) That we don't own property. The Missus and I were too busy having a good time and we passed up that small window where San Francisco and the Bay Area in general, had quasi-affordable property.
2) That I didn't make more of an effort while I was living in Italy, to strike out on my own.
3) That I stayed as long as I have in my crappy job. There was little choice in the matter as I wanted to help raise Junior, rather than working 5 PM to 1 AM with Tuesday/Wednesday off for the first six years of his life. Now I don't have the will or patience to seek another job within this company.
4) That I screwed up a lot of friendships over the lack of my patience at the right time.
5) That I have let myself get discouraged on occasions, when all I had to do was work a little harder or show a little more resolve.
Six Things I Don't Regret-
1) My marriage.
2) Being a parent.
3) The way the Missus and I raised the kid. We are not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but if you've met Procrastinator Junior, you can see that we tried our best. Of course a greater portion of that could attributed to his good heart (pssst, he gets it from his mom).
4) Every writing setback that I've had has only made me a stronger writer. Every delay at success has paid off in regard to the scope and depth of my writing. Call it "novelist Nietzschism."
5) That I am the antithesis of a Polyanna, can you imagine me writing happy, happy thoughts in my stories?
6) That my friends are few and far between. Because the friends I do have bigger hearts and are very supportive. Quality over quantity, any day, ya know?
I won't offically tag anyone, because people have a bad tendency to never come back to the blog when I do. So this meme is open to everyone and I encourage you, the reader, to give it a go.
"You’ve just learned that tomorrow you will die at sunrise. Tell me the five things you regret and the five things you don’t."
Well, I can't go ten on each subject as the esteemed Mr. Carlucci, so let me try five and five, plus one for extra credit:
Five Things I Regret-
1) That we don't own property. The Missus and I were too busy having a good time and we passed up that small window where San Francisco and the Bay Area in general, had quasi-affordable property.
2) That I didn't make more of an effort while I was living in Italy, to strike out on my own.
3) That I stayed as long as I have in my crappy job. There was little choice in the matter as I wanted to help raise Junior, rather than working 5 PM to 1 AM with Tuesday/Wednesday off for the first six years of his life. Now I don't have the will or patience to seek another job within this company.
4) That I screwed up a lot of friendships over the lack of my patience at the right time.
5) That I have let myself get discouraged on occasions, when all I had to do was work a little harder or show a little more resolve.
Six Things I Don't Regret-
1) My marriage.
2) Being a parent.
3) The way the Missus and I raised the kid. We are not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but if you've met Procrastinator Junior, you can see that we tried our best. Of course a greater portion of that could attributed to his good heart (pssst, he gets it from his mom).
4) Every writing setback that I've had has only made me a stronger writer. Every delay at success has paid off in regard to the scope and depth of my writing. Call it "novelist Nietzschism."
5) That I am the antithesis of a Polyanna, can you imagine me writing happy, happy thoughts in my stories?
6) That my friends are few and far between. Because the friends I do have bigger hearts and are very supportive. Quality over quantity, any day, ya know?
I won't offically tag anyone, because people have a bad tendency to never come back to the blog when I do. So this meme is open to everyone and I encourage you, the reader, to give it a go.
Labels: John Carlucci's Meme
posted by Writeprocrastinator at 10:37 PM
23 Comments:
Very nice post - I salute you sir.
JDC
Johnny Dollars,
Thank you very much!
Good post and I like your honesty.
Chelene,
Thanks, but I was just being honest about things I was honest about before. Now, the true test is that one day, I will put something truly embarassing in a meme.
This is an excellent post! I'm going to do it to (not tonight, I'm sick, but soon).
Being honest is not embarrassing, it's empowering! Or not, I dunno.
Fantabulous post! *cringes at own disrespect of language and spelling rules set down before moonwalking was popular*
I will be doing it. Heaven help me!
Tanya,
I'm sorry to hear that you are sick, whenever you are ready.
"Being honest is not embarrassing, it's empowering! Or not, I dunno."
I'll go with "or not."
Bridget,
Welcome back, I hope your holiday was a blast! I look forward to the meme and a recap of your vacation adventures.
I'd say your not regrets are more important than your regrets. Isn't there a song about regretting regrets or something? I have too many regrets and at one point I decided not to have any again. I'm not sure if it worked, but I don't regret not thinking about it!
WP, that was an amazingly honest and beautiful post. I loved it, absolutely loved it.
Coaster,
I agree, you can only beat yourself up so much over the past and then you have to move on.
Katie-lah,
I'm glad you dug it.
What was that, your 5 most embarassing things post is next? Ha.
James,
Hopefully not.
No tagging, eh? You're wising up in your old age. :)
Becky,
Maybe next year...
Very good post. I think your list of not-regrets far outweighs the regrets. You're to be commended for your honesty, especially when you talk about your job and friendships.
Your pride in your family shines through, which I love.
I did it! Thanks for the inspiration (and I was also tagged by Beth and Flannery and Katiecakes).
Bubs,
"You're to be commended for your honesty, especially when you talk about your job and friendships.
Your pride in your family shines through, which I love."
Of course, as soon as I read this, I felt guilty that the first thing I did was get on the computer, intstead of saying "good evening" to Procrastinator Junior and I immediately went over to him, to give him a hug and ask him about his day.
Tanya,
Excellent. I'll check it out, right after dinner.
I 'fessed up on my blog, as well. It's easy to be honest when no one can see you blush or hear you stammer. But I don't think I could do the "truly embarassing" thing. I'll keep a lookout for YOURS, though!
Madam Z,
I think you are better with your candor than I could ever be.
I finally did it and it's surprising how so many people share the same ones, good and bad. A nice post Mr. W.P.
I'll admit to some of them, not all, because that would be far too honest of me.
Dale,
I think that this meme resonates with the introvert-side of all bloggers.
I think you've got some good doozies, but are you entirely serious about the two kids???
Sorry to pop this on you, but there is a second half to this meme. This time I want to know how you plan to fix the specific regret, or what led to this type of regret.
JDC
Johnny Dollars,
I will get to it on Tuesday morning, Tuesday night at the latest.
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